At night, the Riorden estate looked poorer still.
The unlit candelabras, the creaking stairs, even the thin sound of coughing seeping through the gaps beneath the doors.
Kael sat before the desk in his room.
Receipt of Request for Limited Inspection of a Notarial Ledger.
The target was Eastern Relief 7-B, the requester was Riorden, and the person in charge was Matthias Ron.
Tomorrow at noon, they would inspect the ledger.
It sounded simple when put into words.
But dangerous documents usually deceived people with simple sentences.
Kael pressed down on the edge of the receipt of request.
[Request Received]
[Target Ledger Identified: Eastern Relief 7-B]
[Possible Transfer Before Inspection]
That last line.
That was the problem.
It was not foreseeing the future.
The Eye of Settlement could not prophesy. But it could see costs already incurred and losses in motion.
If it could see that the ledger might be moved, it meant that someone was already making preparations.
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in."
Edric entered.
He was the sort of man who did not loosen his collar even at night. The shadows beneath his eyes, however, had not kept up appearances.
"You are still awake, Young Master."
"It is not a document that lets you sleep."
Kael held up the receipt of request.
"What happens if the ledger is not there tomorrow?"
"We can demand confirmation that the ledger is absent."
"Would that favor us?"
"If the Temple acknowledged its duty of custody, we could raise the issue of negligent management. But..."
"The inspection itself would be delayed."
Edric could not answer.
"They want to buy time."
Kael tapped the receipt of request.
"What we found was not a debt, but the direction of a debt. Who ought to pay it, and who erased a name."
Then came the sound of a small stone rolling down outside the window.
Tap.
Tap.
"Rowan."
Kael opened the window.
Rowan stood below in the garden, beside the shadow of the wall.
"It is a fine hour for a night stroll, Young Master."
"Your business."
Rowan's smile disappeared.
"A messenger left through the Temple's back door."
"At this hour?"
"Yes. He had something flat tucked inside his coat. It was too stiff to be an envelope."
"Where did he go?"
"An alley in the western market. I tried to follow him, but two junior Temple priests blocked my way halfway there. By coincidence."
Rowan pronounced the word 'coincidence' politely. That made it all the less believable.
Kael picked up his cloak.
Edric spoke at once.
"There is no need for you to go out in person, Young Master."
"They have already blocked one man."
"Even so, it is dangerous."
"That is why I am going prepared."
Kael folded the receipt of request and handed it to Edric.
"I am not going to find the original. I am going to find out who moved it, and whether any trace remains that it was moved."
"Even so, for you yourself to..."
"Rowan saw it first, and you will handle the next procedure. If Mira is at the western market, we can move the patrolmen as well. I will not arrange for myself to disappear alone."
The Kael of his previous life had died believing that he could endure everything alone.
This time would be different.
Even if he went somewhere dangerous, he had to leave behind the next ledger to be opened if he did not return.
"Protect the original. If I do not return, go to the Temple tomorrow at noon and demand a confirmation of the ledger's absence from Matthias."
"Please do not say such things."
"My previous life was ruined because I failed to say what had to be said."
As he was about to leave, Selena stood at the end of the hall.
"Where are you going?"
"To check the area around the Temple."
"Are you going alone?"
"Rowan is with me."
"Then that is not much different from going alone."
Rowan's voice drifted softly up from the floor below.
"I heard that, Madam."
Without answering, Selena straightened Kael's cloak collar.
"If you are going to protect the name Riorden, do not forget that your life is part of that name too."
It was not a request. It was the oldest debt he had yet to repay.
"I will not forget."
The estate's back door opened quietly. The city was more honest at night than it was by day.
The scent of the Temple drifted between the wet cobblestones and the smell of shuttered taverns.
When Kael and Rowan reached an alley in the western market, Mira Belka was already there.
"Why are you here?"
Mira raised a brow.
"When a young noble comes to a night-market alley, it is usually for one of two reasons. To spend money, or to lose it."
"I came to find money."
"Then it is a third reason."
Kael asked at once,
"What did you hear?"
"A rumor that the locks on the records room were changed."
"Rumors travel quickly."
"Locksmiths do not talk, but apprentices drink."
Mira pointed deeper into the alley.
"Three new locks were delivered to the Temple. One for a large ledger chest, and two for smaller chests."
"If they changed the locks, does that not mean they are trying to protect them?"
"Either to keep out thieves, or to make stolen goods look like their own property."
Mira answered.
Kael looked at the Temple's spire. It was white, and far too quiet.
"Where did the messenger go?"
Rowan pointed deeper into the alley.
"Behind the old apothecary. I lost him there."
Mira spoke at once.
"You did not lose him. That way is a dead end."
"Then where did he disappear to?"
"A dead end is only a dead end for people without money."
Mira walked ahead.
"People with money make doors in walls too."
Behind the apothecary, a damp brick wall barred their way. Rowan ran a hand along one side of it.
"Here."
One brick protruded slightly.
In Kael's eyes, faint red letters appeared on its edge.
[Repair Cost Unpaid]
[Hidden Passage Maintenance Cost: Paid by Seradin Trading Company]
Seradin.
That name had come up here too.
Kael pressed the brick. Click. One section of the wall slid open.
At the end of the passage was a small room.
An old table stood in the center of it.
On top lay a wax stain and the marks of a severed cord.
Rowan picked up a small scrap of paper from beneath the table.
"What is this?"
It was part of a torn envelope.
Kael took it from him.
[Partial Transfer Order]
[Subject: Eastern Relief 7-B]
[Receipt Confirmation: Incomplete]
Mira looked at Kael's expression and asked,
"Did you find it?"
"Part of it."
"Is part of it good or bad?"
"Both. It means someone was in a hurry."
Then footsteps sounded outside the passage.
There was more than one.
Four.
Rowan's hand came to rest on his sword hilt.
Kael looked at the scratches left on the floor.
Marks from something being dragged away.
An object heavy enough to require two people to carry it. A ledger chest.
[Transfer Likely Complete]
[Original Storage Location: Temple Records Room]
[Temporary Storage Location: Undetermined]
The footsteps drew closer.
Rowan whispered low,
"Shall we fight?"
"No."
"Shall we run?"
"Not that either."
"Then what?"
Kael tucked the scrap of the torn envelope into his coat.
"We will act like creditors."
"What does that mean?"
"We make our voices loud."
Kael stepped out of the passage.
Four men in black cloaks stood at the mouth of the alley.
They did not wear Temple priestly robes. But their feet were planted close and soundlessly together.
Their steps had been learned at the Temple.
Steps they were trying to hide in a market alley.
The moment Kael saw them, he said,
"You are late."
The men faltered.
"If you are the ones who moved the ledger chest for Eastern Relief 7-B, you must have brought at least a receipt confirmation."
The look in the men's eyes changed.
It was very brief.
But it was enough.
"Ah, I struck a nerve."
Kael continued,
"Without a receipt confirmation, it is theft. With one, it is a breach of custody. Which one should I write down?"
The man in the middle ground his teeth.
"Do not talk nonsense."
"If it is nonsense, that is a relief. We can confirm it at the Temple tomorrow at noon."
"You may not live to see tomorrow at noon."
Rowan's smile vanished.
Kael smiled instead.
"Threats are expensive. And there are two witnesses here."
One of the men began to draw his sword. At that moment, a drunken voice came from outside the alley.
"Who is there?!"
It was the night patrol.
It was probably not a coincidence.
Without looking at Mira, Kael asked,
"Did you call them?"
"If there is a knife fight in a night-market alley, business dies the next day. Merchants love peace."
The men looked at one another. The patrolmen's footsteps were growing closer.
The man in the middle glared at Kael and said in a low voice,
"You are lucky today."
"No."
Kael lightly tapped the scrap of paper inside his coat.
"The ledger was good today."
The men scattered into the darkness.
Rowan tried to pursue them, but Kael raised a hand to stop him.
"Do not chase them. What we have lost already is not a person."
"The object?"
"Yes."
While Mira sent the patrolmen away, Kael returned to the small room and examined the dragging marks.
They ended behind an old shelf. There was no hidden door.
Instead, a thin dusting of earth had fallen beneath the shelf.
Earth.
Underground.
The Temple did not have only high spires.
It had low cellars too.
[Part of the Transfer Route Lost]
[Ledger Chest Seal Status: Intact]
[Receipt Confirmation: Incomplete]
It had not disappeared completely. It had either not arrived yet, or it had arrived but the receipt procedure was not yet complete.
"Rowan."
"Yes."
"Watch the Temple's back door again."
Without asking further questions, Rowan vanished.
Mira came up to Kael.
"By now, could we not just go tomorrow and complain that the ledger is absent?"
"Then they will say this. It is under repair. It is a mistake. Verification is needed as a matter of procedure."
"The sorts of words Temple people love."
"The words they love are used expensively. They buy time."
Kael took out the scrap of the torn envelope.
"But this is different."
"The transfer order?"
"It is proof that the ledger did not disappear. It was moved."
"Is that difference so important?"
"Disappearing is a mistake. Moving it is intent."
"Young Master, do you know that you sometimes talk like a truly unpleasant person?"
"I know."
"That is a relief."
A little later, Rowan returned.
His breathing was slightly harsher than usual.
"A carriage entered through the Temple's back door."
"Did it come back out?"
"Not yet."
"Its crest?"
"There was none. It seems to have been erased deliberately."
"The load?"
"It was empty when it entered."
"When it leaves?"
"It has not come out yet. But..."
"But?"
"The light in the records room window went out. And one ledger chest disappeared."
Kael slowly let out a breath.
It was not over yet. If anything, the board had only just truly opened.
Tomorrow at noon.
They would say the ledger was gone.
They would say it was under repair.
They would say to wait for the procedure.
Then Kael would only have to ask.
Who had moved it.
Why they had moved it.
Why a ledger whose receipt procedure was not even complete had left the Temple storage room.
Kael folded the scrap of the torn envelope and put it inside his coat.
One was a promise the Temple had made. The other was a mistake the Temple had hidden.
With those two sheets, he could make the Temple speak tomorrow at noon.
"Good."
Rowan asked,
"Is it good?"
"Yes."
"I do not think it is very good."
"If the ledger disappeared, it means someone fears the ledger."
"And that person either has a great deal of money or a great deal of power, I suppose."
"Most likely both."
"That is not comforting at all."
Kael gave a faint smile.
"We did not come here to be comforted."
He turned away.
"Tomorrow at noon, we are not going to see the ledger."
Rowan walked after him.
"Then what are we going for?"
Kael answered,
"To get a receipt from the person who stole the ledger."
It was before the dawn bell rang.
The night was drawing to an end.
But Kael knew.
The true darkness was now waiting inside the Temple.